1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to magneto-optical heads and, more particularly, the invention relates to coil structures that are used in magneto-optical heads.
2. Description of the Background Art
Disk drives are a known memory storage device in the computer industry. Magnetic disk drives are the most common type of disk drive, and use magnetic heads to write data to, and read data from, magnetic disks. Magneto-optical (MO) drives are another type of disk-based storage device. MO drives include MO heads that write data to, and read data from, an MO disk. Of great importance in MO disk drives is the ability to accurately read data into, and write data from, minute tracks on the MO disk using a laser.
MO heads typically include a microcoil for the purpose of magnetic field generation in thermomagnetic writing of an MO data storage medium. An example of such a structure is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,525 entitled xe2x80x9cCoil for Use With Magneto-Optical Headxe2x80x9d by McDaniel and Wang, incorporated herein by reference. Fabrication of an MO head, including a working planar microcoil, is challenging for mass production considering the precision and relatively small dimensions of the components of the MO head and disk drive.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for a planar coil structure of a magneto-optic (MO) head.
The present invention comprises a microcoil mounted to a read/write head in a magneto-optical (MO) data storage device. More specifically, the microcoil mounted to a read/write head in a magneto-optical head that utilizes a sub-micron optical antenna as a read/write transducer. The microcoil is affixed to the focusing lens of the MO head proximate a region where the light exits the focusing lens. The microcoil creates a source of a magnetic bias field that provides efficient generation of a dynamic writing field consistent with a driving current magnitude and frequency. The microcoil is also compatible with known low-cost batch fabrication processes.